Public interest in psilocybin and psychedelic therapy in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic: A Google Trends analysis
JMIR Form Res. 2023 Nov 28. doi: 10.2196/43850. Online ahead of print.
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Psychedelic substances have demonstrated promise in the treatment of depression, anxiety, and substance use disorders. Significant media coverage has been dedicated to psychedelic medicine, but it is unclear whether the public associates psilocybin with its potential therapeutic benefits. The COVID-19 pandemic led to an increase in depression, anxiety, and substance abuse in the general population.
OBJECTIVE: This study attempts to link increases in interest in these disorders with increases in interest in psilocybin using Google Trends.
METHODS: Weekly, interest-over-time Google Trends data for four years, from the week of March 11th, 2018 to the week of March 6th, 2022, were obtained for terms: “psilocybin,” “psychedelic therapy,” “cannabis,” “cocaine,” “antidepressant,” “depression,” “anxiety,” and “addiction.” Important psilocybin-related news and the declaration of the pandemic were noted. Trend data for each of the queried terms were plotted and multiple regression analysis was done to determine the slope of the pre-pandemic and post-pandemic data with 95% CI. Nonparametric Tau-U analysis was performed correcting for baseline trends. Results from this test were used to make inferences about the trends pre- and post- pandemic, and inferences about the change in overall level of searches between the two groups.
RESULTS: Tau values for pre-pandemic data were all significant for stable trends with all Taus in the range of -0.4-0.4. Tau values for post-pandemic data showed positive trends in “psilocybin,” “psychedelic therapy,” and “antidepressant.” All other trends remained stable in the range of -0.4-0.4. When comparing Tau for pre- and post- pandemic data, overall increases in RSV were seen in psilocybin, psychedelic therapy, and anxiety, and overall decreases in RSV were seen in depression, addiction, and cocaine. Cannabis and antidepressant overall RSV remained stable as Tau was between -0.4 and 0.4. In the immediate aftermath of the declaration of pandemic, drop offs in interest were seen in all terms except for anxiety and cannabis. After the initial shock of a global pandemic, psilocybin and psychedelic therapy groups demonstrated increases in interest trend and overall RSV.
CONCLUSIONS: These data suggests that overall interest in psilocybin and psychedelic therapy increased at faster rates and to higher levels than before the pandemic. This is consistent with our hypothesis that interest increased for these treatments after the pandemic as incidence of depression, anxiety, and addiction increased. However, there may be other drivers of interest in these topics, since interest in antidepressants, the typical pharmacologic treatments for depression and anxiety, followed the expected pattern of drop-off and accelerated interest back to pre-pandemic levels. Interest in psilocybin and psychedelic therapy may have also been partially driven by popular culture hype and novelty, explaining why interest increased at a higher rate post pandemic and continued to grow, surpassing prior interest.
PMID:38064635 | DOI:10.2196/43850